Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin hacked, loses about $38 million, promises to compensate users

Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin disclosed on November 2 a security breach in which roughly $38 million in digital assets were stolen, though Arkham Intelligence analyst Emmett Gallic estimated suspicious transfers at over $46 million, a figure not yet reconciled. The exchange said users would not bear losses, paused deposits, withdrawals and platform services, and notified authorities; initial analysis suggests attackers may have seized signing credentials authorizing transactions. Bitquery traced the suspicious transfers across Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, Stellar, Arbitrum, Tron and Polygon, with the intrusion vector still undetermined. Mercado Bitcoin said it worked with Tether, Circle, Paxos, BRL1 and Chainalysis to freeze $11 million and has identified further freezable funds. The exchange has not given a timeline for restoring services, leaving users and markets watching for resumption and for reconciliation of the $38 million and $46 million figures.